Invasion - Chapter 95
Chapter 95
Lin Yuan and Ni Ji walked a long way.
The terrain here was very complex, with crisscrossing pipes, countless forks, and floors going up and down.
With the help of the mapping device Ni Ji made, they walked and stopped, and when they were tired, they would find a corner, huddle together, and take turns sleeping, watching over each other.
When they were hungry, they would start a fire, trying to cook something warm to eat. Ni Ji's wilderness survival skills were excellent, and his hands nimble. He could, in such an environment, create delicious food.
Having explored this dark world for so long, with only a dim light and endless passages,
The two subconsciously moved closer to each other, always holding hands, afraid of getting separated in such a place.
They often encountered strange underground creatures.
Most of them were violent and ferocious, requiring battle, but some were gentle, intelligent. When they met these, they could even exchange a few words, and these would even be willing to point them towards the temple.
"Don’t go there, the temple is about to collapse, why are you still going there?”
A female deviant, her appearance terrifying but her voice gentle, told them this. She was taking her family members, preparing to go to a higher level to seek refuge.
Ni Ji, who was walking ahead, heard a subtle sound, and made a gesture towards Lin Yuan, warning her to be careful.
Lin Yuan hesitated, “But…”
Ni Ji was a Sentinel. In the dark environment, he used his enhanced hearing and vision to detect enemies.
Lin Yuan completely relied on mental power to identify living beings.
The Deviant in the corner gave her a familiar feeling, it was the small Deviant they had met before, the one who had asked them for snake soup to take back to his mother.
The faint light from the flashlight shone over, and at the corner ahead, a large Deviant was coiled.
Many times larger than that small Deviant. It seemed to have devoured something huge, its entire body swollen, its skin stretched thin, slowly wriggling in the corner.
“Ah, we meet again, it’s you two.”
The swollen, giant Deviant, its skin stretched thin, crawled out from the corner.
An empty tin can was squeezed out from beneath it, rolling to Ni Ji’s feet. Ni Ji stepped on it and recognized it as the can he had used to hold the meat soup.
This creature, whose size had increased several times, was the small deviant they had encountered before.
“Although you kindly shared that soup with me, my mommy still didn’t make it in the end," a hint of sadness in his tone, he reached out his long, fat arm and touched his belly.
If mommy’s gone, I’ll inherit her body, I won’t waste a single bit of her.
Ni Ji and Lin Yuan, remembering the words he had said, closed their mouths, not asking where his mother was, a chill running down their spines.
But the little Deviant didn't notice their emotions.
He seemed happy about this reunion. Seeing these two outsiders again, who had shown him kindness, made him very excited.
"Are you looking for the temple? That place is not easy to find," the little Deviant climbed out from the passage he was hiding in. "Come, I’ll take you there."
He led the way, wriggling, sometimes climbing up the walls, sometimes clinging to the ceiling.
Although his body had grown, his movements still resembled an infant’s.
Not walking in a straight line, he liked to climb up and down, and he would occasionally stop, distracted by something, playing for a while.
He was very innocent, simple-minded, but some of his behaviors were also very cruel. Like how he had tried to attack Ni Ji and Lin Yuan without a word earlier, like how he had devoured his mother without any hesitation after her death.
Although transformed from humans, in their behavior and way of thinking, they were obviously a completely different species.
Ni Ji and Lin Yuan exchanged a look, kept a little distance, and slowly followed him.
The little Deviant’s childish voice came from ahead. “Big Brother, Big Sister, you’re from the outside world, right? Everyone says the outside world is very scary, that humans are terrifying. Actually, I think it’s okay, the two of you are good humans.”
“Why are you going to the temple?” The childish voice said as he crawled. “The temple’s not safe right now.”
“Is the temple not safe?” Ni Ji asked.
“We can't feel God anymore, It’s gone, some even say It’s dead, everyone says the temple is about to collapse, very dangerous," the giant, juvenile Deviant crawled along the dark passage, a hint of confusion and worry in his voice.
“Maybe I should also leave this place, but I don’t know where to go," he had been living in this world ever since he was born.
Without eyes, not knowing what light was, this vast underground city was his whole world.
Perhaps in response to the collapse he mentioned, the ground in the maze suddenly shook violently, dust falling, the metal pipes creaking.
The little Deviant fearfully squeezed his huge body into a small corner.
When dodging falling debris, Ni Ji also reached out, helping him block a metal sheet falling from the ceiling.
Even after the earth-shattering shaking stopped, he still hid in the corner, not daring to come out, his butt sticking out.
He only extended a long, soft arm, waving it against the wall to point out the route.
"Not far now, go forward, turn this way, then that way, then you'll be there."
Another aftershock came, and more debris fell from the ceiling.
Lin Yuan looked up at the shaking ceiling, wondering if this place really would collapse.
The little Deviant screamed, curling his bloated body tighter.
He hadn’t experienced earthquakes or collapses before. He could hardly believe that this steel city, which had sheltered him since he was born, which he had grown up in, could also tremble and be on the verge of collapsing like this.
Lin Yuan and Ni Ji prepared to say goodbye and hurried towards the temple.
"Wai- wait!"
The eyeless head emerged from the corner, bald, a strange sight.
But they had seen so many Deviants these days that Lin Yuan had gotten used to it, she even found that bald head a little cute.
"I- I might not be able to leave this place," the little deviant pleaded, his tone very sincere. "I want to ask you, if I die, could you eat a bit of my flesh?"
Lin Yuan shook her head. "Sorry."
She could sense the deep disappointment and sadness from him after hearing her refusal.
For them, after death, having their bodies consumed by a creature they liked was a continuation of their lives.
Not having anyone to inherit their body was an incredibly sad thing.
Devouring was the way creatures here inherited power, continued their lives.
The strong devoured the weak, and the deceased entrusted their bodies to their descendants. In their eyes, this was only natural.
But the values Lin Yuan had developed from the environment she grew up in made her unable to accept such a request.
In this shaking and trembling, Lin Yuan thought of her past memories.
When Ni Ji was unconscious, when she was taken deep into the underground by Teng Lu,
An old Deviant, ancient and nearing its end, had crawled out from the earth, wanting to devour her.
"Excellent, you’ve finally brought her to me, a Guide, a young Guide of the same bloodline as me," the behemoth had said.
Lin Yuan hadn't been willing to submit, and their mental powers had clashed, intertwined, they had battled for a long time.
After the earthquake subsided, Lin Yuan and Ni Ji bid farewell to the panicked little deviant and, following his directions, finally arrived at a giant gate.
She didn’t know what the gate was made of, it was pure white and heavy. Beautiful, golden murals lit up when her fingers touched it.
Ni Ji pressed his hands against the door, exerted his strength, and with a creak, pushed open the heavy white gate.
They found themselves finally at the temple they had been looking for.
Although this place was called a temple, it looked more like a giant research institute.
It wasn’t dark inside, faint lights in every corner.
The walls were white, the floor white, the entire space wide and open, so white it was almost scary.
All sorts of advanced equipment were placed in the big white room, various cables and steel ropes hung from the ceiling, giant, sealed glass containers lined up neatly along the sides.
Those glass containers were now all empty, dried yellow-green liquid inside.
Lin Yuan and Ni Ji, holding hands, entered this spacious, silent, white space.
They saw many iron beds.
Thick iron chains were attached to the beds, dried, blackened blood on them.
It was clear that many humans had been chained to these cold, iron beds, struggling in pain.
Rows of cold, silent iron beds in this pale world, as if ancient cries still echoed in the air.
Ni Ji and Lin Yuan, avoiding the blood-stained beds, walked forward.
They walked past the dense, jungle-like, giant equipment, past one partitioned room after another, and saw the huge hole in the center of the floor.
In the center of this research facility, there was such a deep cave, electric nets surrounding its opening.
Standing at the edge of the hole, looking down, right below, was a jade altar. Pale light shone down from above, the space below dark, only the smooth surface of the altar illuminated.
That familiar altar, the one that had appeared in her dreams so many times, both when asleep and awake!
"I saw it in the murals. Back then, they seemed to have thrown humans down here, into this hole, as sacrifices to a monster, to hatch and raise it, and for human experiments," Ni Ji said as he reached out to hold Lin Yuan’s hand, who was standing beside him.
He held a cold hand.
Ni Ji suddenly turned his head.
The person behind him, in a white dress, her eyes bright, her hand in his, wasn't Lin Yuan, but another face.
…
Lin Yuan saw the altar in the underground cavern.
The altar, bathed in light, soaked in thick, dried blood.
She took two steps back, accidentally pushing open a partitioned door behind her.
The small white door opened with a creak. Lin Yuan turned around, the small space seemed to be an office, a white coat hanging on the wall, documents scattered on the floor.
And on the ground beneath those thin pieces of paper, lay a giant eye, the eye, seeing Lin Yuan appear, its blood-red pupil rolled, blinked, then moved from the ground up to the ceiling.
Lin Yuan subconsciously reached out to grab Ni Ji behind her, there was light here, and she could clearly see everything in this world. Ni Ji was only a step behind her.
But she grabbed a strange hand. That hand was soft and small, cold as ice, definitely not Ni Ji's.
Goosebumps rose on Lin Yuan’s back, and she abruptly turned around.
The person holding her hand was in a white dress, her appearance like Teng Lu’s, but the feeling was completely wrong.
“She” was clearly close enough to hold hands with her, yet seemed very far away, as if that fair arm was infinitely long, stretching into the distance.
The space seemed distorted, and Lin Yuan saw Ni Ji on the other side of the person.
There was only one person between them, but Ni Ji there seemed incredibly small, incredibly far away.
He was running towards her, a distance he could reach in one or two steps at his speed, yet he couldn’t seem to reach her no matter how far he ran.
"Don’t be surprised, I’m not Teng Lu, or rather, not completely Teng Lu," the being in the white dress, so far yet so close, said to Lin Yuan, “She doesn't want to become human again, she willingly offered her body to me, giving me this opportunity to talk to you."
"Who are you?" Lin Yuan asked.
"Who am I?” A hint of laughter came from the will holding her hand, "I can’t answer this question, perhaps, you could try giving it an answer that makes sense to you."
Their hands clasped, their skin touching, and their mental powers collided head-on in a mental sea as vast as the universe.
The brilliant mental universe, vast and boundless.
Their flowing consciousness like dazzling colorful lights.
The colorful lights touched each other, invading.
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